Bottle carrier



March 1947. c. D. KIEITH ETAL 2, ,9

BOTTLE CARRIER Filed April 18, 1944 4 3 Sheets-Sheet l March 1947- c. D. KEITH ET AL BOTTLE CARRIER 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed April 18, 1944 March 4, 1947.

c. D. KEITH ETAL BOTTLE CARRIER Filed April 18, 1944 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Patented Mar. 4, 1947 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,416,999

BOTTLE CARRIER Claude D. Keith, Lake Mahopa'c, N.'Y., and Joseph F. OBrien, Englew'ood, N. J.; I'lli Mi Keith. administratrix of said Claude 1); Keith,- de

ceased, said OBrien a'ssignor to said Irene Mi Keith as administratrix Application April 18, 1944, Serial No. 531,550

2 Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in bottle carriers, and particularly to carriers that are rigid and iormed'of wood, plastic or other rigid material.

Rigid carriers made of wood heretofore employed usually comprise a small box capable of receiving the required number of bottles, and having some type of slidable or foldable carrying handle applied thereto and sometimes pro vided with some form of separators for the botties. These box carriers are heavy, bulky, and take up more space on trucks in plants and elsewhere than the cardboard cartons heretofore almost universally employed. Also separators heretofore employed take up valuable space and when made sufficiently loose to permit ready loading of the carton, fit the bottles poorly and allow the bottles to rattle in the carrier and if such separators are tightened up on the bottles, it is then more diilicult to load the carriers with bottles. Also when such box carriers are employed, additional weight must be carried on such trucks and additional space is required in plants, and furthermore, the same number of these box-carriers will not fit into cases heretofore especially made for four card-board carriers, nor will such an individual box-carrier fit into one of the compartments in such cases heretofore employed for a card-board carrier. The use of such boxcarriers, therefore, made it necessary to provide additional space on trucks and in the plants and also to discard a large amount of valuable cartoncarrying cases theretoiore used in connection with cardboard cartons.

One of the objects of our invention is to provide a satisfactory rigid bottle-carrier that will greatly economize space on trucks and in plants;

Another object is to provide arigid bottle carrier that will or may be made to take up even less space than the cardboard carriers and will fit into the compartments and cases heretofore employed for such cardboard cartons.

Still another object of our invention is to provide a carrier that will hold the bottles in firmer separated condition than heretofore possible Without the loss of valuable space and a package can be made that will fit the bottles with substantial accuracy and still permit ready filling.

Still another object of our invention is to produce a rigid carrier that can not only be filled readily and quickly but that will provide means for guiding the bottles into bottle-compartments in the carriers to facilitate the filling operation.

Still another object of our inventionis to titl lize .a rigid skeleton that may be used in com nection with a thin outer slip-over shell of paper, paste'board or like material of minimum amount that is renewable for sanitary reasons and when in place on the rigid skeleton will form a rigid wall for retention or separation of the bottles.

With these and other objects in View, the invention comprises the combination of members and arrangement of parts so combined as to eoact and cooperate with each other in the performance of the functions and the accomplishment of the results herein specified, and comprises in its adaptations the species illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of our preferred form of rigid carrier;

Fig. 2 is a bottom plan view of the carrier shown in Fig. '1;

Fig. 3 is a'view in side elevation, partly broken away, of the carrier shown in Figs. 1 and 2;

Fig. 4 is 'a top plan view of the carrier shown in Figs. 1 to 3;

Fig. 5 is a view in perspective of a. modified form of rigid carrier with a removable outer slip= over rim member cooperating as a supplemental contact member with the primary internal contact members shown;

Fig. 6 is a view in perspective of the slip-over rim member separated from the carrier;

Fig. '7 is a bottom plan view of the carrier shown in Figs. 5 and 6; and

Fig. 8 is a perspective view, with parts broken away, illustrating our carrier with a modified form of slip ovei' rim member.

Referring now to these drawings, and partieularly to Figs. 1 to 8, which illustrate a preferred embodiment 01 my invention, our carrier is of minimum outside dimensions so as to econ-'- omize space on trucks and plants while at the same time fitting the bottles and retaining them more securely in separated positions, and also to enable a carrier for six bottles to fit within the usual wooden-case compartments that were partitioned to snugly fit and hold thin-walled paste board cartons. and consequently to produce (primarily from heavier, thick and rigid ma terial, such as wood) a carrier that will not occupy appreciably more space than such pasteboard cartons, and will utilize space between cylindrical bottles heretofore unoccupied to provide a more snug, better fitting, more secure and non-rattling carrier (without the usual spaceconsuming partitions and box -walls) that will effectively separate and prevent grinding or the bottles against each other.

Inthe form shown in Figs. 1 to 4, our carrier comprises a rigid bottle-supporting bottom I which is adapted to support one or more rows of cylindrical bottles B aggregated in close adjacency to each other and to permit the erection or mounting thereon of a plurality or series of sectional, seat-forming posts'Z mounted in vertical position on said bottom in. spaced relationship to each other so as to form sections of seats I bounded by segments of the walls of adjacent cylindrical bottles, and thus have the outline or shape of a plurality or series of adjacent cylindrical segments connected into a three or four sided figure, according to whether such space is between two bottles and connected by a line tangential to the outer surfaces thereof or between four contacting bottles. Our posts preferably take the form of these inter-bottle spaces, and are spaced from each other entirely or thinned out at the points of close adjacency or contact of the bottles, and are positioned in such manner as not to extend appreciably beyond the walls of the bottles that are aggregated in the carrier. In any event, the major portions of the bodies :of such posts are disposedin the said open spaces and are shaped to provide bottle-contacting side-surfaces 3 adapted to engage or contact a segmental portionof the sides or walls of a plurality of bottles. Said bottle-contacting surfaces preferably comprise cylindrical segments, and each post has a plurality of such bottle-contacting sides or surfaces and an additional side or sides that may either constitute additional segmental contact-surfaces or a straight surface substantially tangential to two ofsaid segmental cylindrical surfaces. Each of the contact surfaces form a segment of a seat for a bottle and a plurality of such surfaces 3 provide guideways to assist in loading the bottles in the carrier and in retaining the same firmly in place in such carrier in slightly separated positions relatively to each other and without grinding contact between adjacent bottles and without substantial movement of the bottles in their seats. These surfaces are sectional and preferably cooperate with an additional contact surface or surfaces to completely enclose and-separate the individual bottles from each other, and in the form of our invention shown in Figs. 1 to 4 coop erate with a centrally-disposed partition 4 which passes between and separates two'rows of bottles, with a minimum thickness of material and does not materially add to the width of the carrier. This partition 4 is preferably mounted at its opposite end in end posts 2 so as to be slidable up and down relatively'thereto in a limited sliding movement. As shown, the partition 4 is provided with pins 5 fastened; as shown, by plates 6 and slidable in vertical bores ."l in said end posts, and the said partition also has an interengaging section 8 at each end which cooperate with sections 9 in the end poststo permit limited vertical movement of the partition in relation to the post, and as shown the partition has projecting foot portions l0 extending into the cut-out sections .9 vand.'in;the .ext ended position of the partition engaging a shoulder II in the section 8 to limit the upward movement of the partition. This upward movement permits the upper edg of the partition to serve as a. handle for the carrier and is provided with a handle-portion l I and a handle aperture l2 which are readily accessible in the raised-position of the partition to permit engagement by the user in carrying the carrier, and the lowering movement enables the top of the carrier-partition to be lowered below the tops of the bottles so as to enable stacking of these carriers on top of each other when the same are filled with bottles.

In Figs. 5 to '7, we have shown a modification of our invention in which posts are employed in cooperation and combination with a continuous oblong-shaped releasable slip-over box member 20 of thin material such as cardboard, that may be fastened through openings 20' to the frame of the carrier, and which posts are disposed alon the center line of the carrier, two pairs of such segmental posts 2|, 22 and 23, 24, being edge posts or members mounted at opposite ends or edges of a carrier bottom 25 and additional internalsegmental posts 26, 21 and 26 and 21 are mounted on opposite faces of a central partition 30 having a lower portion 30 fastened to the bottom 25 and an upper handle portion 33a mounted to slide vertically on the lower portion so as to provide a construction in which the handle portion 30a is capable of being raised to the position shown in dotted lines in Fig. 5 when it is desired to carry the carrier by hand and to be lowered to the position shown in full lines therein to enable stacking one above the other of a plurality of carriers. As shown, channeled cleats or Way-members 3| having channels 32 are mounted at the upper, end of the lower portion and the handle portion is provided with holders 33 having fixedly mounted therein, downwardly-extending pins 34 which pass through and slide ver tically in the channels 32 and are provided at their lower ends With movement-limiting stops 35. In Fig. 8 we have shown a modified form of the slip-over member 33 of thin material embodying a series of segmental cylindrical portions 34 adapted to surround the outer edge of the bottles carried in the carrier. In other respects, the construction is similar'with that shown in Figs. 5 to 7.

In Fig. 5, the internal posts 28 and 29 extend above the sides of the slip-over box and are tapered at their top portions to guide and facilitate the entrance, during the filling operation, of bottles into seats within the carrier.

I Having described our invention, We claim:

1. A bottle carrier of the rigid type comprising arigid bottom for the support of a load of cylindrical bottles aggregated in close adjacency to provide a plurality of rows, said bottom being of substantially rectangular form and provided with rectilinear edges, a series of rigid posts mounted in spaced relationship to each other along the outer edges of said bottom, each of said posts having outer fiat surfaces positioned flush with said rectilinear edges to form sectional carrier walls and provided with inwardly-extending cusp-shaped portions disposed between adjacent cylindrical segments of a plurality of bottles and being provided with bottle-contacting seat-forming surfaces comprising cylindrical segments adapted to engage the cylindrical side wall surfaces of said plurality of bottles to provide sectionaltbottle-seats therefor, two of said series of sectional'posts being end-posts positioned at ops posite ends of said bottom in alignment with each other and the other members of said serie being side-posts arranged along the side edges of said bottom, and a separating partition having a handle portion lowerable to a position below the tops of the bottles carried, said partition being connected with said end posts and extending between adjacent rows of bottles to contact with bottlebodies at positions remote from said side posts and to retain said bottles in contact with the side sectional posts.

2. A bottle carrier of the rigid type comprising a rigid bottom for the support of a load of cylindrical bottles aggregated in close adjacency to provide a plurality of rows, said bottom being of substantially rectangular form and provided with rectilinear edges, a series of rigid posts mounted in spaced relationship to each other along the outer edges of said bottom, each of said posts having outer flat surfaces positioned flush with said rectilinear edges to form sectional carrier Walls and provided with inwardly-extending cusp-shaped portions disposed between adjacent cylindrical segments of a plurality of bottles and being provided with bottle-contacting seat-forming surfaces comprising cylindrical segments adapted to engage the cylindrical side wall surfaces of said plurality of bottles to provide sectional bottle-seats therefor, two of said series of sectional posts being end-posts positioned at opposite ends of said bottom in alignment with each other and the other members of said series REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

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